226 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part I. 



been able, without the aid of canoes, to have spread widely. 

 Sir J. Lubbock further remarks how improbable it is that 

 our earliest ancestors could have " counted as high as ten, 

 considering that so many races now in existence cannot 

 get beyond four." Nevertheless, at this early period, the 

 intellectual and social faculties of man could hardly have 

 been inferior in any extreme degree to those now pos- 

 sessed by the lowest savages ; otherwise primeval man 

 could not have been so eminently successful in the 

 struggle for Hfe, as proved by his early and wide dif- 

 fusion. 



From the fundamental differences between certain lan- 

 guages, some philologists have inferred that when man 

 first became widely diffused he was not a speaking ani- 

 mal ; but it may be suspected that languages, far less per- 

 fect than any now spoken, aided by gestures, might have 

 been used, and yet have left no traces on subsequent and 

 more highly-developed tongues. Without the use of some 

 language, however imperfect, it appears doubtful whether 

 man's intellect could have risen to the standard implied 

 by his dominant position at an early period. 



Whether primeval man, when he possessed very few 

 arts of the rudest kind, and when his power of language 

 was extremely imperfect, would have deserved to be 

 called man, must depend on the definition which we em- 

 ploy. In a series of forms graduating insensibly from 

 some ape-like creature to man as he now exists, it would 

 be impossible to fix on any definite point when the term 

 " man " ought to be used. But this is a matter of very 

 little importance. So again it is almost a matter of in- 

 difference whether the so-called races of man are thus 

 designated, or are ranked as species or sub-species ; but 

 the latter term appears the most appropriate. Finally, we 

 may conclude that when the principles of evolution are 

 generally accepted, as they surely will be before long, the 



